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Friday, November 7, 2014

How to make pongal using a rice cooker - Step by step - Pongal recipe

Pongal, is a very famous breakfast dish in South Indian Cuisine.It is usually cooked with rice and moong dal. Moong dal, should be added very little to the ratio of rice. Because, moong dal will double its volume. Cooking the pongal in rice cooker,will taste better than the pressure cooker pongal. Because, here rice and dal are cooked slowly. I have added hot water to speed up the process. We can also add cooked moong dal at the end , instead of adding raw dal. Adjust the spice level according to your taste.Pongal is usually, served with chutney and sambar.

* Wash rice dal well. Soak them together for atleast 30 mins. We can also slightly fry the dal ,till it turns golden brown and soak it. Turn the rice cooker on and set the "Rice setting " mode. Let the rice cooker be kept open. The bowl will be heated ,then add oil. Let the oil sit for a minute.

* In a mortar and pestel, crush pepper corns,cumin seeds, green chilly and ginger.Temper, with pepper corns, cumin seeds,hing and curry leaves. When the pepper corns are popped, add ginger and green chilly.The pepper corns, should not be crushed finely.

* Pour the hot water to the rice cooker. Add salt to taste and mix. Now dump the rice and dal to the rice cooker. Close the rice cooker and let it cook. To fasten the process, we can also cooked dal to the rice cooker. This way, the pongal will get cooked fast. But add the cooked dal, when the rice is 80 % done.

* After 45 minutes, the rice would have cooked fast. Now add milk to the pongal and mix. The addition of mik, will give out the taste, that we get in restaurants. When the pongal is about to be done, add ghee and mix. Ghee has to be added at the end. It gives out good flavour to the pongal.

Let the pongal be kept warm ,till it is served. I like my pongal not to be mushy. If you want, you can add 1 more cup of hot water to the pongal.

Notes:
* If we want, we can add cooked moong dal at the end.
* Always add ghee at the end.
* We can also add whole pepper corns, instead of crushed, for kids.
* We can also add little turmeric powder to the pongal to ive a light yellow touch.
* Add little hing,if not it will change the taste of the pongal.